Collective Identity and Identity Work in a Nonprofit Organizational Coalition

This study examines the role of collective identity in nonprofit coalition-building, using critical discourse analysis of a case study of an Asian American nonprofit organizational coalition focused on advocating for community health access and equity. The study finds that the pan-ethnic collective identity is a resource for the organizational coalition studied. The study extends existing literature on inter-organizational studies and nonprofit organizational coalition-building through the introduction of a conceptualization or model of identity work as involving both the activation and strategic deconstruction of the pan-ethnic Asian American collective identity. This study finds that identity work, as conceptualized, can be critical not only to sustaining a pan-ethnic coalition, but also to ensuring that a pan-ethnic coalition of nonprofit organizations embodies social work value of social justice and ethical responsibility of cultural competence and social diversity.